Dr. Lauryssen is a board certified neurosurgeon (Diplomat American Board of neurological Surgery License # C50914) and since 2004 is the Director of Research & Education at the Olympia Medical Center (formerly known as Midway Hospital).  Previously, Dr. Lauryssen was the Director of Research & Education at Los Angeles’ Cedars-Sinai Institute for Spinal Disorders. Prior to Cedars, he was an Associate Professor with the Department of Neurological Surgery at Washington University School of Medicine. While in St. Louis, Dr. Lauryssen was asked to join the St. Louis Rams as a consulting neurosurgeon, as well as a Consultant Neurosurgeon for ABC News OnCall with Dr. Tim Johnson Medical Consultant. Dr. Lauryssen is Board Certified American Board of Neurological Surgery, 1999 Canadian Board of Neurological Surgery, 1995 Fellow of Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, 1995. His education is from MBChB University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa (1988), with his Internship at Groote Schuur Hospital, Somerset Hospital, Cape Town, South Africa, and his Residency was performed as “Resident, General Surgery” from 1990 to 1991 at the University of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, as well as performed as “Resident, Neurosurgery” from 1991 to 1995 at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Additionally, he held a Fellowship for Spinal Neurosurgery from 1995 to 1996. His medical licensing is in California, Missouri, Alabama, Canada, and South Africa. Dr. Lauryssen has numerous honors and awards, professional activities, is on editorial boards, advisory boards, university and hospital committees, performs clinical research, patents pending and has an extensive list of published papers.

Dr. Patwardhan is a Professor at Loyola University Medical Center and Founding Director of the Musculoskeletal Biomechanics Laboratory, which was established in 1980. The Musculoskeletal Biomechanics Laboratory supports the research activities of medical students at Loyola, and residents and faculty in the department of orthopaedic surgery. The initial goal of the laboratory was to serve as a research resource for residents and faculty to pursue research in the area of orthopaedic biomechanics. The Biomechanics Laboratory is a nationally and internationally recognized facility for research and education in orthopaedic biomechanics. The laboratory is equipped with state-of-the-art facilities for conducting biomechanical investigations on bone and soft tissues. His education is a B.S. in 1972 in Mechanical Engineering from Nagpur University, Nagpur, India; M.S. in 1974, in Mechanical Engineering, from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, and Ph.D. in 1980, also in Mechanical Engineering from Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK. Dr. Patwardhan completed a Post-Doctoral fellowship in 1980 in Biomechanics from Oklahoma State University. He also has some direct experience in experimental testing of the face guards for Riddell helmets. Avinash’s VA appointments include: Director, Musculoskeletal Biomechanics Lab June 1980 to Present at the Rehabilitation Research and Development Section, Edward Hines, Jr., VA Hospital, Hines, IL, Research in biomechanics of the human musculoskeletal system, where he is responsible for the development and planning of the research program in the Musculoskeletal Biomechanics Laboratory, Management of research resources and collaborative research activities involving Edwards Hines, Jr. VA, as well as was on the Scientific Review Subcommittee IV. His current University appointments include: Professor, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Rehabilitation (July 1992-Present) Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine, Director, Biomechanics Research program within the Department, Resident and medical student instruction in biomechanics; Adjunct Professor, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, IL; Adjunct Professor, Bioengineering Department, University of Illinois at Chicago, Graduate and undergraduate instruction in biomechanics of human musculoskeletal system, Thesis advisor to Master’s and Ph.D. students. Dr. Patwardhan’s Certificates, Professional Affiliations, Professional Activities, Consulting, Committees, Appointments, Awards & Honors, Research, Current & Previously Funded Grants & Contracts, Graduate Students & Post-Doctoral Fellows Supervised, etc. lists are available upon request.

Dr. Eric Morgan is a Board Certified Diagnostic Radiologist specializing in Cardiac Imaging, Vascular Imaging, Virtual Colonoscopy, Cancer Imaging, Sports Imaging, and Non-vascular Interventional Radiology. Dr. Morgan is a member of the prestigious Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society and is an active member of both the American College of Radiology and the Radiological Society of North America. His Academic and Administrative background includes: Director of Radiology Continuing Medical Education, Assistant Chief Department of Radiology, Radiology CT Section Chief, Assistant Chief Department of Nuclear Medicine, and Research Principle Investigator. Additionally, Dr. Morgan served on multiple hospital committees. Prior to his medical training, Dr. Morgan worked as a programmer and knowledge engineer where he was engaged on projects ranging from medical system inference engine programming to automatic mapping of disparate medical vocabulary lexicons. Preceding this work, Dr. Morgan was a medical writer, authoring over 300 patient focused articles averaging one to two pages in length. Presently, Dr. Morgan is a licensed physician and works as a staff radiologist in Orangeburg, SC.

Kristen Willeumier, PhD, is a neuroscientist with extensive knowledge on how the brain is affected by health, nutrition, and the impact of concussions. Dr. Willeumier served as the Director of Research for the Amen Clinics from 2009-2016 advancing the research mission of exploring how brain SPECT imaging can transform clinical practice. During this tenure, she authored and co-authored 44 scientific manuscripts in peer reviewed journals. Areas of published research include traumatic brain injury, posttraumatic stress disorder, attention deficit disorder, autism, biomarkers of suicide, obesity, gender differences in brain function, clinical outcomes, and brain rehabilitation. While at the Amen Clinic, Kristen led her colleagues through a clinical research trial investigating the long-term effects of repetitive subconcussive impacts in NFL football players. Subsequent work focused on therapeutic approaches to rehabilitate brain function in athletes. More recently, Discover Magazine acknowledged her published research finding that neuroimaging can accurately distinguish traumatic brain injury from posttraumatic stress disorder in both a veteran population and a large clinical cohort as one of the top 100 scientific breakthroughs of 2015, ranked at #19. The current emphasis of Dr. Willeumier’s work is in investigating biomarkers for treatment of psychiatric disorders using machine learning applications.

Dr. Willeumier conducted her graduate research in the laboratory of Neurophysiology under the direction of Felix Schweitzer at the University of California, Los Angeles and the laboratory of Neurogenetics under the direction of Stefan Pulst at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center using live cell imaging to investigate mechanisms of synaptic signaling in Parkinson’s disease. She received MS degrees in physiological science and neurobiology, and a PhD degree in neurobiology from the University of California, Los Angeles. She was a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Neurology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center where she continued her work in the field of neurodegenerative disease. She was the recipient of the prestigious NIH fellowship from the National Institute of Mental Health to study the molecular mechanisms underlying Parkinson’s disease presenting her work at national and international scientific meetings including the Society for Neuroscience, Gordon Conference, and the World Brain Mapping Conference.